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19 December 2012

Chasing Rainbows: Rainbo Review

Eating my way around London, with all of the new restaurants, street-food markets and pop-ups that keep popping up, may be a task that is just a tiny bit too Sisyphean. Eating my way around Kerb, on the other hand, is somewhat more achievable. The only trouble is that I enjoy the food from some of the vendors--Bleecker Street Burger, The Bowler and The Ribman in particular--so much that I don't end up trying new things.

The Rainbo Tour @ Kerb

Yesterday, though, the King's Cross market was on the petite size, and with a choice of only Horn OK Please and Rainbo, I went for the purveyors of homemade Japanese gyoza dumplings. That would be Rainbo. The menu today was quite simple; it was: how many chicken and coriander gyoza do you want? Actually, I went for the Rainbo Combo, which included six gyoza, crunchy Asian salad with caramelized chilli peanuts and edamame beans with Maldon salt. All of this filled up a standard street food cardbox takeaway box. Not bad for £6, and I could at least fool myself that I was being healthy.

The colourful Rainbo menu

The gyoza were pretty tasty. It might have been nice to be able to try a second flavour, but then again, I don't like the other two options listed on their website. I can take or leave edamame; I like the beans, but I feel the enjoyment-effort ratio is a little off. These tasted good with the Maldon salt, though. I really liked the salad--there's nothing like some caramelized chilli peanuts to make a grated carrot and red cabbage salad a whole lot more interesting! Although the combo didn't feature every colour of the rainbow, it came pretty close. And because you have to eat everything with chopsticks, it means you eat more slowly and get full more quickly.

The Rainbo Combo

If you want a proper lunch, the Rainbo Combo is the way to go, but splitting eight gyoza between two people as a starter could also work. And on those days where I feel I need to eat something a little less meat-heavy, Rainbo could be a good alternative to Bleecker Street Burger et al.